China conceals Tibet flood footage; victim information scarce

Footage of Tibet floods isn't being shown in China - and we know little about victims there

CCTV shows people running as mud and water destroys buildings in Gyirong, Tibet

The dramatic footage was almost impossible to miss. A torrent of water tearing through Gyirong Port, one of the main border crossings between Nepal and Tibet, sweeping away all in its path as hundreds of people fled for their lives.

The scenes, captured by CCTV cameras, quickly spread on social media and onto screens around the world.

Only a single still-frame shot has been broadcast so far by the country's state-run flagship news bulletin.

It has also been difficult to find the video on China's heavily censored internet. It is just as hard to even find posts describing the flash flooding that has claimed hundreds of lives, with just as many still unaccounted for since Wednesday.

Beijing has launched a massive rescue operation involving hundreds of emergency workers, which is continuing, and President Xi Jinping chaired an emergency meeting with officials to co-ordinate efforts.

But when you compare the country's internet content to what much of the world has been seeing online these past few days, China's firewall becomes more visible than ever.

Tibet, which Beijing annexed in the 1950s, had long resisted rule by the Chinese Communist Party.

China has quashed protests over the years, sometimes violently, and has been accused of grave rights violations in the Buddhist region. It has labelled the exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, a separatist.

That history means the very name Tibet draws China's censors. Beijing's sensitivities are especially apparent at times likes this.

There have been daily updates on the missing and the dead, and Beijing has also been posting updates on the rescue operations, as well as the dangers posed by a barrier lake that has been at risk of overflowing.

On Saturday, new footage from Chinese state media showed rescue teams wandering in a wasteland of mud and rock while calling out to anyone trapped.

But there is little detail beyond that. There are no accounts from survivors in Tibet, and almost no user-generated footage showing the deadly moments or their aftermath.

We are yet to hear from anxious families of those missing. Trying to contact people there is near-impossible during regular times.

As a journalist who has covered North Korea, it has often been easier for me to contact interviewees in Pyongyang than it is in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

On Thursday night, as global headlines led on the devastation in a Himalayan valley, China's state broadcaster opened its main bulletin with the launch of Xi's new book, a selection of his "most important and fundamental works".

Foreign journalists cannot travel to Tibet without government permission. We have just a few hours to get as much information as we can on huge stories like this before videos are scrubbed and voices stifled.